MP: UK Ban on Muslim Brotherhood 'Could Aid Al Qaeda'

A Conservative MP has warned that the inquiry into the Muslim Brotherhood ordered by David Cameron could backfire if the organisation ends up wrongly proscribed for terror links.

Crispin Blunt, a former justice minister, said that any wrongful banning of the group could lead to members seeking solace with al-Qaeda.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, he said that although British authorities have a duty to determine that the organisation’s leadership is not planning terrorist actions, the former minister said that “a misapplied policy could drive its followers into the arms of al-Qaeda.”

He also said that Saudi Arabia and various Gulf states felt threatened by the Brotherhood, so ban on them must not look like it has been passed at their behest.

“The worst possible thing would be a fit-up job that listed the Muslim Brotherhood on the terrorist list with little or no evidence. It would be a betrayal of our values and make the problem worse,” Mr Blunt added.

The review into the Muslim Brotherhood will be conducted by the British ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Sir John Jenkins and is due to report its findings by the end of Parliament’s summer recess in September.

Egyptian political analyst Abdallah Hamoud told Al-Arabiya that the group works “among British Muslims in order to mobilize pressure against the government to take measures against the interim government in Cairo.

“The Muslim Brotherhood organization in the UK is planning to bring about some kind of radicalization effect among British Muslims.”

Mr Hamoud added that “the British government is starting to feel the impact of this, particularly after news is rife of British Muslims participating in the war in Syria, threatening Britain’s national security.”

“To have London as a hub for Islamists will take the scene back to the early 1990s where the breeding, long-term effect of radicals didn’t initially pose an immediate threat, but later did.”